Jambalaya is a spicy rice dish which originated in Louisiana, USA. It was allegedly created by Spanish settlers, eager to recreate paella without saffron, which was unavailable to them. Jambalaya is generally Cajun or Creole, the main difference being that Creole includes tomatoes, resulting in a deep-red sauce. Cajun is generally spicier and involves using the “holy trinity” of onions, celery and green pepper.

I’ve cooked this so many times, consuming other people’s recipes, adding this and that, tweaking here and there, and this is the best I’ve come up with.

Tips:

Try to use a heavy, cast-iron pot for this, or failing that, a heavy non-stick pot. We need to reduce the risk of burning. Also, cook on a low temperature.

When it comes to vegetables, anything goes; this is a great way to use up vegetables that might be lying around in your fridge. Apart from the obligatory ‘holy trinity’, I like to use carrots, peppers, peas, green beans, sugar snaps, even broccoli. It might not be wholly authentic, but it tastes great. Remember to adjust your cooking times for each vegetable, e.g. add the peas for just a few minutes cooking.

This recipe requires a tablespoon of ‘Cajun spice’ which can be bought as a commercial preparation, but I recommend you make your own. Take a look at this recipe.

Heat olive oil in a heavy pot or casserole. Fry the chrorizo and onion until the onion starts to colour and soften.

Add chicken and garlic and fry until the chicken is browned. Depending on how much oil is surrendered from the chorizo you may need to add a little more oil.

Add the celery, green peppers, chilli peppers and any other hard vegetables (such as carrot). Fry for 1 or 2 minutes.

Add rice and all of the spices, then stir well to ensure the rice is well coated.

Add chicken stock and good pinch of salt. Cover the pot and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked. Check the rice is not sticking to the pot occasionally, but try not to stir too much.

This is a great dinner for a cold evening, adjust the chilli flakes depending on how hot you like it. I like this dish as it is, but you could make a nice ‘dinner party’ dish by topping with a roasted fillet of white fish; just make sure you chop the chorizo finely to make the dish a little more refined.

Ingredients

200-250g chorizo, sliced

2 red onions, chopped

1 small courgette, finely chopped

3 sticks celery, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

500g tomato passata

400g can butter beans, rinsed and drained

400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

4 tomatoes, quartered

1 tsp fennel seeds, coarsely ground

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method

Heat a little olive oil in a large non-stick pot or casserole. Fry the chorizo until it has coloured slightly, then add the onion and fry until it is also coloured.

Fry the courgette, celery and garlic for 3 minutes then add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the parsley. Season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bring to the boil then cover and simmer very gently for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Before serving, stir through the fresh parsley. Serve with some crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce.

Notes

Sometimes I like to make a rich version of this by adding 300ml of red wine I fry the chorizo and onion. Reduce the red wine to almost nothing before adding the vegetables.

Right, I’m sure the purists say you can’t add chorizo to a Spanish tortilla, but are you seriously trying to tell me that no-one in Spain has ever tried doing this? In any case, it tastes great. Not healthy, but very tasty. I’ve included amounts in this recipe but they’re not really important; use as much spud, chorizo, onion & garlic as you like.

Ingredients

eggs, 5 (organic or free-range, naturally …)

milk, splash of

potatoes, a handful of waxy baby/salad potatoes will work best

onions, 2 chopped

garlic, 2 cloves, crushed

chorizo, about 150g

olive oil

Method

Cook potatoes in salted boiling water and fresh under cold water.

Heat olive oil in a frying-pan, fry chorizo until it starts to release it’s red oil.

Add onions and garlic, turn heat down, and fry until onions are soft and caramelised.

Preheat a grill.

Slice potatoes and add to pan so that potato becomes red with oil from chorizo.

Season mixture with salt and pepper.

Beat eggs well, add a splash of milk and season well with salt and pepper.